Decanter is reporting that a LA production company has purchased the film rights to George Taber’s book Judgment of Paris. What’s interesting is that they wont be focusing on the French. They have said that they intend to focus on the interplay between Spurrier and the Californians rather than the French angle, ending with the [...]

I visited with our architects today and picked up some more rough-ups of the winery, which are pictured here. The first photo shows the general shape and height of the winery against the backdrop of the hills and vineyards nearby. One of our design goals is to be as inconspicuous as possible, and a fringe [...]

Michael Bauer over at his SF Gate wine blog posts a short interview with wine critic Karen MacNeil, the author of The Wine Bible. He asked her what qualities a great wine possesses, and here are the 7 that she identified: 1. The presence of varietal characteristics in the wine. 2. Balance or what she [...]

Blankiet Estate is looking for crush interns. If you’re interested, you’ll get to work under Helen Turley, the world famous consulting winemaker. Here’s the info: Premium Napa Valley Cabernet producer seeks harvest interns for the 2006 crush. Interns will work with top quality fruit, a great winemaking team and will participate in all aspects of [...]

Dr. Andrew Waterhouse at UCD gave a talk on May 19th on his research into the effect of oxidation on wine chemistry. I didn’t attend the presentation, but the Trellis Alliance sent out an email with a link to his slides. In them he makes a provocative comment about a possible chemical explanation for terroir. [...]